Cages are used in a variety of situations, such as in a vivarium or in a home, to securely contain a living organism within an enclosed space. A cage for containing reptiles requires special considerations in its construction. Since reptiles are cold blooded, the materials which compose the cage walls should be insulating and/or capable of accommodating additional insulation to protect the organisms contained within from changes in the ambient temperature. A light source and/or heat source, possibly requiring electrical wiring, must be incorporated into the cage in some cases to regulate the temperature within the cage. Plumbing may also be needed to supply water and other necessities into the cage.
An access opening should be included in one of the walls as appropriate to allow the insertion and removal of the reptile into and out of the enclosed space, respectively. The access opening should be arranged such that it may be opened and closed easily. The access opening should also be capable of being locked in the closed position in a way which can be easily unlocked from the outside but is impossible to be unlocked from the inside as certain reptiles have been known to escape from cages with unsecured sliding or hinged access openings. An appropriate locking mechanism should securely hold the reptile within the cage.
The cage should be lightweight yet strong for convenience, portability, and durability. Since there exists a large variety among reptiles in size and shape, the design and fabrication method of the cage should be such that they may be easily adapted to suit the requirements of the particular organism. In addition, the cage should be low in cost.
The inner surfaces of the cage should be easy to clean since the waste produced by reptiles tend to adhere and harden on most materials of which cages are constructed. It is submitted that this is an ongoing, unsolved problem with respect to prior art cages.
An example of a prior art reptile cage is an adaptation of a simple fish aquarium with a metal or plastic mesh or clear acrylic removable top. This exemplary cage is not actually suited for use as a containment for reptiles since fish aquariums are often made of pieces of glass that are held together by adhesives, silicone sealants, and rubber edge seals. These cages therefore tend to be heavy and unwieldy as well as fragile. Glass is also a relatively good conductor of heat, thus it is difficult to insulate the interior temperature of the cage from changes in the ambient temperature. In addition, glass, metal and plastic mesh, and acrylic are all materials onto which reptile wastes easily adhere, and hence can be difficult to clean. Although this type of reptile cage is inexpensive, it is not an ideal solution for the maintenance of a healthy reptile.
A more sophisticated example is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,842,439 (hereafter the ""439 patent) issued to Selstad. The cage according to this patent is constructed with the particular requirements of reptile containment in mind. The particular embodiment described in this prior art patent includes various convenience features such as sliding glass access doors, a bucket recess for receiving a light source, and matching ridges and grooves on the top and bottom, respectively, to aid in the stacking of several cages. There are, however, a number of drawbacks to this prior art cage, as will be described immediately hereinafter.
Some of the major disadvantages arise from the preferred material used to construct the body of the cage. The walls of the reptile cage described in the ""439 patent are made of a blow molded, high density polyethylene plastic. Although polyethylene is a strong material which is chemically nonreactive, it is noted that waste produced by organisms contained within the prior art cage will readily adhere to the polyethylene walls and floor of the cage.
The molding process allows the cage to be fabricated effectively of a single sheet of plastic. This feature is desirable in eliminating the need for seams, which can weaken the structural integrity of the cage and add edges and corners that can trap waste and residue. However, this fabrication method is also inflexible in that cages of different shapes and sizes require separate molds. Hence, it is potentially not cost effective to produce cages of more than a few different sizes and shapes. In addition, since the walls of the cage fabricated according to the ""439 patent are made of a single layer of thin material approximately one quarter of an inch thick, the interior of the cage is again not very well insulated from changes in the ambient temperature.
The present invention provides a reptile cage which serves to resolve the problems described above with regard to prior art cages in a heretofore unseen and highly advantageous way.
As will be described in more detail hereinafter, there is disclosed herein a lightweight cage. This cage is composed of an arrangement of one or more panels that define an enclosed space in which an organism is contained. Each panel includes an inner surface that at least partially serves to define the enclosed space. The inner surface is formed from urethane insensitive material such that the waste produced by the organism held within the enclosed space will not adhere to the inner surface.
In one aspect of the invention, each panel may include an inner member defining the inner surface and an outer member fixedly supported spaced from the inner member such that a highly advantageous insulation property is imparted to the panels.
In another aspect of the invention, a method of fabricating a lightweight cage as described above is disclosed. According to the method also described hereinafter, the panel arrangement is fixedly assembled without the use of thermal heating to define the enclosed space in which the organism is to be kept.